Monday: First workout for pitchers and catchers.Feb. 27: First full-squad workout.March 4: First exhibition game (vs. Giants).March 6: First home exhibition game (vs. Giants).April 5: Season opener (vs. Rockies at Miller Park).

Phoenix — When Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio thinks about how high he pushed his team payroll for the upcoming season, he admits to being "a little nervous."

When Attanasio reflects on the fan support of the past two seasons, however, that nervousness dissipates somewhat.

"I felt a little better when I saw we hit a million ticket sales (for 2010), the second-fastest in team history," Attanasio said. "That definitely helped.

"The support and community reaction to the changes we made definitely gives me some comfort."

As his team prepared officially to open spring training Monday morning at Maryvale Baseball Park, Attanasio took time to address the many personnel moves of the off-season and consequences in terms of pushing team payroll toward $90 million, its highest level ever.

In a telephone interview from his Los Angeles office, Attanasio also expressed optimism and hope for a better result on the field than in 2009, when the Brewers followed their first playoff appearance in 26 years with a disappointing 80-82 record. In particular, he expects a better showing from a starting pitching staff that ranked last in the National League with a 5.37 earned run average.

"We're not going to get caught short this year," vowed Attanasio, referring to the collapse of the starting rotation last summer after Dave Bush and Jeff Suppan went down with injuries.

"We obviously had to do something about our pitching. (General manager) Doug (Melvin) is a guy who likes to have a Plan B and Plan C. He's a big believer in depth."

To improve that depth - beginning with a three-year, $29.75 million deal with free-agent pitcher Randy Wolf - Attanasio allowed Melvin to boost the payroll beyond the original budget. The Brewers have gone well beyond the $80 million level with which they began the 2009 season.

"We kind of pushed the payroll," said Attanasio, entering his sixth season as the team's owner. "The numbers are never quite what (some) people think. When we look at what we'll probably end up spending, including calling guys up (from the minors) and paying incentives, it's starting to push $90 million.

"The official number is mid- to high 80s. We really owed it to the fans to do everything we could to put as good a team on the field as we could. We reallocated our dollars away from position players to pitching."

Attanasio left no doubt that pushing that envelope would not have been considered without the banner support of Brewers fans. The club drew more than 3 million in home attendance in both 2008 and 2009, levels that bucked the team's small market size as well as the sagging economy.

"I'm a little nervous, but that's kind of my job," Attanasio said with a laugh. "If you look, there were a lot of other teams that are similarly situated that were committed to cutting payroll. Thanks to the support from our fans, we're able to take this calculated business risk.

"When we did the analysis for buying the team, we knew what a tremendous sports community and baseball community that we had. But I must say when we looked at our budgets, I never imagined we could get to 3 million fans. That's just a terrific show of support and interest in the team.

"Our people work hard. (Team vice presidents) Rick Schlesinger and Bob Quinn work hard. Their whole business team provides a product that's appealing as well, making tickets affordable for fans."

The Brewers enacted slight increases in some ticket prices since last season, but Attanasio said that was done primarily to keep the team competitive on the field.

"I went to see 'Avatar' the other night," he said. "It's great, but 'Avatar' in an IMAX theater is more expensive than going to a Brewers game. We want to continue to make it an affordable fan experience.

"As you push on the ticket price to get a greater ticket revenue number, on a long-term basis you're making a mistake because you want to keep the fans coming back and bring their kids and turn their kids into fans.

"If you push it too far, as you saw with some teams last year, maybe your revenue per ticket price goes up but your number of ticket sales goes down. And you risk alienating your fans.

"In everything you look at, there's a balance between affordability and the bottom line of the team. We're always looking at other ways we can drive revenue for the team. We don't have all the arrows in our quiver in Milwaukee that you might have in another city."

Attanasio is well aware that some fans won't be happy, no matter how high the payroll. In particular, he gets asked why he can't approach the $140 million payroll of the Chicago Cubs, the Brewers' National League Central rival.

"The Cubs have a much higher average ticket price than we do and get significantly more in media revenue. That's the simple math," said Attanasio, who indicated the Brewers' local television contract generates less than $10 million per season.

"We're 30th (among the 30 clubs in media revenue). The scorecard I use is we're 30th and when we bought the team we were 27th in (total) revenues. Now, we're somewhere like 18th. So, I feel like we've moved the dial. Actually, it's the fans who moved the dial."

In an effort to increase revenue, Attanasio said he has looked many times into what it would cost to "winterize" Miller Park, making it more suitable to holding major events during the off-season. Each time, the numbers didn't add up.

"It's prohibitively expensive vs. what we could get (financially) on the other side," he said.

Attanasio was quick to note that the Brewers' payroll wouldn't be in the same ballpark, so to speak, without the revenue-sharing plan initiated by Commissioner Bud Selig, the team's former owner. That plan added nearly $30 million to the Brewers' coffers last year, which combined with the team's tremendous per-capita attendance, allowed the payroll bump.

"We don't do all of this without revenue sharing," said Attanasio. "We've been a beneficiary of it, and major-league baseball has, too. There's a wider disparity in payroll in our sport than any other sport, even with what we have. But it does allow a team like ours to compete."

But, Brewers fans ask, will that be enough to keep the team's best player, Prince Fielder? Melvin and Attanasio will make an effort this spring to get Fielder and hard-line agent Scott Boras to agree to a long-term deal, but there's no guarantee their best offer will be enough to keep the slugging first baseman.

"We don't handicap these things," said Attanasio, whose day job as an investment manager taught him the fine line between aggressive and foolish financial maneuvers.

"It'll be meant to be or not. Prince has said he likes playing in Milwaukee. I've said we're interested having him play in Milwaukee, and we love having him in Milwaukee. We'll see what happens. You never know."

Which is why Attanasio can be both nervous and calm at the same time in an oft-calamitous sport that presents different challenges each year.

Big money players

Randy Wolf →

$29.75

million

Salary over three years to get Randy Wolf to shed his Dodgers uniform for Brewers blue.

← Prince Fielder

????

Attanasio will try this spring to entice the slugging first baseman with a long-term contract, but will the Brewers be able to afford him?

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